Munroe v. Beggs

Citations

• 91 Kan. 701
• 139 P. 422
• 1914 Kan. LEXIS 104

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>Fraternal Insurance — Change of Beneficiaries Procured by Fraud — Money Received — Action by Rightful Claimants to Recover the Money — Pleadings. In the certificate of a member of a fraternal insurance association his wife was named as beneficiary. They were subsequently divorced and under the laws of the association she was no longer qualified to be a beneficiary or to share in the benefit provided for in the certificate, and in the absence of the designation of a new beneficiary the children of the member would have become entitled to the insurance upon his death. Before he died he designated his sisters as his beneficiaries, and shortly after his death they brought an action upon the certificate of insurance against the association and recovered a judgment, which was paid by the association. Later the children brought an action against the sisters so designated as beneficiaries to recover the fund paid to them by the association, alleging that at the time the new beneficiaries were designated the insured was weak of body and mind, and that his sisters, through fraudulent representations, had induced him to name them as beneficiaries so as to assure the payment of the money to the children, two of whom were minors, and that they procured themselves to be named not for the purpose of protecting the fund for the children but that they might obtain and appropriate it to their own use. Held; first, that the fraternal association was not a necessary party to the action for the recovery of the fund; second, that the petition, which recited substantially the foregoing facts, stated a cause of action against the sisters of the insured; and, third, that the limitation in the certificate that no action could be maintained on the certificate unless it was brought within one year after the death of the member has no application to the action brought by the children to recover the fund from the sisters of the deceased member who had gained poss